


History has Its Eyes on You

by SugarCloud15



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hydra Peter Parker, Mild Self Harm, Other, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Acts Like a Spider, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter is everyone else's, Precious Peter Parker, Pyotr is Peter's persepective, Tony Stark Has A Heart, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 19:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 13,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18350405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarCloud15/pseuds/SugarCloud15
Summary: The Spider’s world crumbled apart the moment the door opened. All order and discipline and structure was thrown into the fire that was crawling up the walls of the facility. He scaled the wall and hovered over the door, waiting for someone to walk through. An instructor, a guard, a doctor, an Avenger (which he just knew were the ones who started the fire), absolutely anyone. But no one walked in.…“Let us go!” The metal encased man shouted from inside the cage. The Spider spoke no English, so he didn’t understand a word that they said. But the instructor and handler seemed to.“Why should we? I could always set Паук on you and see how he deals with the all mighty Avengers.” The instructor’s voice was notably calm, even with the flames licking at the door jamb. The Spider watched as all eyes turned to him.(title and the first eight chapter titles are all hamilton songs. there will be some later, but some other chapter titles belong to other musicals.)Peter speaks a lot of Russian in this series. I do not, so I used google translate. Sorry for any mistakes, and if you notice any don’t hesitate to tell me :)





	1. Burn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm searching and scanning for answers  
> In every line  
> For some kind of sign  
> And when you were mine  
> The world seemed to burn  
> Burn"  
> \--Burn, Eliza Hamilton, Hamilton

The Spider’s world crumbled apart the moment the door opened. All order and discipline and structure was thrown into the fire that was crawling up the walls of the facility. He scaled the wall and hovered over the door, waiting for someone to walk through. An instructor, a guard, a doctor, an Avenger (which he just knew were the ones who started the fire), absolutely anyone. But no one walked in.

It unnerved him. Everything was wrong. He scoffed and jumped off of the ceiling. He peeked through the door, trying to spot any sign of his handler. The smoke started to get thick, so he lifted his shirt over his nose and mouth for a filter. He could make something better, but he had no time.

The Spider ran through The Spider corridor. No one. The next. No one. No one, no one, no one, no one. Where is everyone? Why did they leave him behind?

He found the only corridor not on fire, the one leading to the training room. He smirked and rushed inside, reminiscing over all his accomplishments and praise that he received in this room. The training room was not empty. It had his glass cage in one corner, and inside were people he didn’t recognise. They certainly weren’t the other experiments, he had walked past their rooms on the way here and their doors were still closed, which meant they were probably dead. Sacrifices. They were gone, but more would rise in their place.

The people inside his cage were new, not even guards or doctors. The Spider knew, he saw them every day. No, these people were definitely new. They must be the Avengers. The Spider sneered at them. He then looked around the room to find his handler and doctor, standing next to his instructor, who was the man in charge of the entire compound.

The compound was made to house The Spider, and other experiments like him. The other experiments were brought in after him. The compound was for him, and would always be.

The Avengers looked surprised when he ran in. One, dressed in a blue outfit with a white star on his chest whispered to one whose outfit was made from metal, possibly vibranium. The Spider was familiar with vibranium, it being the only metal he couldn’t damage or manipulate in anyway. It made him uncomfortable seeing it used as armour.

The others in his cage were quieter, and wore darker colours. The Spider had no idea how they were contained, especially with the fire raging outside. The Bosses were all calm, so he stalked over to them quietly, but loud enough for them to be aware of his presence. He had learnt the hard way what happened when he made one of them jump. The Avengers were all staring at him like he was a kicked puppy.

“Spider!” His handler shouted. His Russian was thick, and he knew that none of the Avengers could understand. The Black Widow and Traitor were not there. He had seen their pictures before, being raised to know who were traitorous towards the Leaders.

“Sir.” The Spider responded, in equal thickness of Russian, just to make sure.

“Where were you when the alarms sounded?” His handler demanded, raising an arm to hit him, but was restrained by the instructor. The Spider lowered his eyes in respect.

“My door was shut. It only opened due to the temperature rising.” He looked towards the Avengers, even more curious as he saw them gape at him. “Why are they here?”

“They were sent to dismantle our base.” The instructor replied.

Dismantle? Why would the Avengers care about a tiny base such as this? Why didn’t they chase after the larger bases with the leaders? The Spider was unimportant, he was told so at least once every week.

“Let us go!” The metal encased man shouted from inside the cage. The Spider spoke no English, so he didn’t understand a word that they said. But the instructor and handler seemed to.

“Why should we? I could always set Паук on you and see how he deals with the all mighty Avengers.” The instructor’s voice was notably calm, even with the flames licking at the door jamb. The Spider watched as all eyes turned to him.

The sight was unnerving, multiple pairs of eyes staring directly at him, willing him to react to anything around him. But he didn’t. He followed his training and protocol and didn’t respond. He couldn’t anyway, he had no idea what was being said.

“What did you do to him? He’s only a child.” The blue suited man said.

“He is not a child. Not anymore.” His handler cackled. “He is a soldier.”

The Spider straightened his back. He knew that word. ‘Soldier’. It meant he was good. He did what he was told, and when. He behaved and followed orders, and that was why he was kept when all the others were disposed of.

“What did you see of the other experiments?” The instructor asked him, flicking back to Russian at the drop of a hat.

“Their doors were closed. I did not see their bodies, but the fire was inside their rooms, under the doors.” The Spider responded, looking at the instructor’s chest. Don’t look them in the eye. You’ll get punished. You won’t be good.

“Fine. We only need you.”

Everything moved very quick after that. The flames rose through the door. The glass broke due to the temperature change. The Avengers were free. The instructor and doctor were dead. His handler was restrained. The Spider was restrained. The ceiling opened up and a plane slotted into the hanger and they were shoved on board. The Spider was then handcuffed and attached to the side of the plane. He was not compliant. He thrashed and screamed and didn’t respond to anything they said.

His handler was taken to a separate part of the plane so they couldn’t converse. The Spider was getting antsy now, without something familiar next to him. He felt uncomfortable, but he knew this was their plan, so he kept quiet and still. He didn’t give them what they wanted. He obeyed his training. His closed his eyes and suddenly, he was no longer there.

He can’t teleport. He could only meditate and force himself into a different mental state, where he was no longer on the plane with multiple Avengers staring at him. Instead, he was lying in a pool of water, delicate flowers floating on the surface with him. The sky was a sort of purple-pink. His doctor once called this dissociation. The Spider and his handler called it meditation. It kept him calm. They trained him to do this in case he was ever caught, so he not only couldn’t answer their questions, he couldn’t hear them in the first place.

Eventually, they arrived at wherever they were heading to. The Spider stayed in his meditative state until he was sat down and left alone. He opened his eyes to observe his surroundings. He was alone. The room was bare, with a table in front of his that his arms were resting on and he was sitting in a chair. There was a plate of food on the table. He huffed and pushed the food away, out of reach. He sat back and waited for someone to walk in through the door.


	2. Satisfied

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "He will never be satisfied"  
> \--Non-Stop, Angelica Schuyler, Hamilton

Tony and Natasha watched through the two-way mirror at the boy. He was stationary, but his eyes were open now. His only movement was his chest breathing and that one moment when he pushed the plate away. His eyes didn’t even twitch.

The men from HYDRA had called him Паук. Natasha translated it for them. ‘Spider’. It was Russian, apparently. After Natasha had told them, Tony had insisted she be there for the ‘interrogation’. The kid knew information, no matter old he was. He was speaking clearly to the HYDRA soldiers, like he was an equal, but never looked them in the eye, kept his head down. Like he was less than them. The dynamic didn’t make sense.

Tony was determined to find out what that dynamic was exactly.

From an initial scan Friday performed, the boy was about fourteen to fifteen years old, based on hormone levels and growth. He had several old injuries that had healed wrong. He was malnourished. Friday chalked it up to child abuse. Tony and Natasha shared a look. This was going to be more difficult than they thought. Tony walked into the room.

The boy’s eyes didn’t move, his face didn’t twitch, there was no sign of acknowledgement. The boy remained passive.

“So, your base wasn’t easy to find.” Tony started, pulling out a chair on the other side of the table and sitting down. “Not hungry?” He asked, gesturing slightly to the abandoned plate. The boy’s eyes moved briefly to the plate before looking back to what he was staring at before. Tony smirked. A reaction.

“We just need information, and then you can be on your way.” Tony moved his head to try and get into the boy’s line of vision. The boy’s eyes just moved downwards further away from Tony’s face. Oh… He gets it now. The boy was avoiding his eyesight, trying to treat him as his superior. Like he treated his guards. First, the boy was being spiteful, treating them as lesser beings. Now, he was scared, treating them as someone better than him.

“Сэр.” The boy spoke. “Я не понимаю, что вы говорите. Я не говорю по-английски.” He sat back in his chair, not looking at Tony’s face.

“I have no idea what you just said. Do you understand slash speak English?”

“Tony.” Natasha’s voice sounded over them from the overhead speakers. “He said he doesn’t speak English and he doesn’t understand a word that you’re saying.”

“HYDRA знает вас. Вы никогда не победите.” The boy said, and Natasha translated. “HYDRA knows you. You will never win.”

“HYDRA? Why are you part of HYDRA, kid?” Tony asked, and Natasha translated accordingly.

The boy replied snarkily.

“He was raised there. Claimed he was important.” Natasha translated. Tony stopped for a moment. This kid had clear Stockholm Syndrome. Raised by a terrorist organisation, made to believe he was going to be special. But here he was. There were going to have to help him. They couldn’t leave him like this.

Tony stood slowly, not taking his eyes off of the emotionless Russian boy, and walked out of the room. He sighed and rubbed his face.

“This kid… he’s called The Spider?” Tony mumbled to Natasha when he walked to the room next door with the window. “He thinks he’s important to HYDRA, like he’s the equal to his ‘handler’.” Tony sighed again.

“Tony, we need to help that boy.” Nat whispered, staring at the boy through the window. “He’s like me, and Bucky, and Loki. He needs our help, like you guys all helped us. Clint was for me, Steve was for Bucky and Thor was for Loki. You are for that boy. You can help him.”

“I hope the others are having better luck with the handler.” Tony sighed, watching as the boy closed his eyes to sleep, without moving his head.

***

The metal man was Tony Stark.  The Spider had learnt about him a few years ago. Tony Stark was going to be one of his missions in the future. At one point, he had been the Winter Soldier’s mission, but then the Traitor had go and ruin everything. The Spider had to be put into cryo-stasis for a year after the Winter Soldier betrayed the Bosses. He hated cryo-stasis. He would always wake up groggy and sick, and would have to be reset when he didn’t get better.

He wasn’t sure if he blamed the Traitor, or the Avengers. The Avengers had stolen the Winter Soldier and corrupted him. The Spider had to pay for their mistakes. He was sick and tired of the Avengers putting him in situations of punishment or risk, and here he was now. He couldn’t go back to the Bosses after this. He would be in cryo-stasis for five years if the Bosses find out that the Avengers had managed to apprehend him. Meanwhile, his handler would be mercifully killed. The Spider was too useful, so instead, he would be in pain.

He should start his punishment now. Then, if the Bosses found him, his punishment would be lessened. Thank HYDRA for his flexibility. He lifted his leg onto the table and pulled a small, unnoticeable knife from his boot. He dragged the blade across his arm in small horizontal lines, some deep enough to draw blood and some not. He quickly switched to the other arm. He could Tony Stark and the Black Widow on the other side screaming at him, and just as he finished his punishment, Captain America stormed into the room and stabbed a needle into his neck. Before he passed out, he could clearly see the Traitor in the doorway.

The Spider whispered in thick Russian: “Hail HYDRA.” And the world turned dark.


	3. Helpless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Helpless!  
> Down for the count  
> And I'm drowning in 'em"
> 
> \--Helpless, Eliza Hamilton, Hamilton

He woke up on a bed. A comfy one. That meant it was a hospital bed. Regular beds could only belong to high ranking members. The Spider couldn’t own a comfy bed, he didn’t deserve one. Therefore, it had to be a hospital bed. He felt a needle in his arm and a bandage on his other arm. He groaned. Why were the Avengers treating him this way? He didn’t deserve anything from them, other than to be hurt. Why did they care? Why were they nice?

The Spider sat up and pulled the needle out of his elbow, detached the sticky pads that were connected to wires and climbed out of the bed. Luckily, he was still in his sleeping armour, as the fire had occurred during his sleep, which meant they didn’t know about his other hidden weapons. He could still protect (or punish) himself. He breathed a sigh of relief.

He surveyed the room. There was a simple heart monitor next to the bed (which was surprising considering how advanced the Avengers were supposed to be), an IV line on the other side of the bed of which he had just pulled out the needle, a door that didn’t seem to have a handle on it, and a window that covered the entire opposite wall from the door. Now, he wished he had his goggles, which he had left behind when the fire started. The sun leaking through the window was too bright, and the noise burrowing its way through was too loud.

The Spider stood up properly and walked over to the door. The lack of a handle meant his was most likely locked in the room, as if it was a prison again. He could see the hinges on this side of the door, so the door opened inwards. And without a handle, he could open the door. Unless…unless he used his sticky palms to stick to the door and pull it open from this side. If that didn’t work, plan B was to somehow smash the window.

He placed his right hand on the door, where the handle would be. He activated his stickiness and pulled the door towards him, watching as it was still trapped against the door jamb. His heart nearly broke when he saw the lock rattle against the frame. He punched the door in frustration. He wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t show weakness, only anger or neutrality. He didn’t know if there was a camera in the room that they were using to spy on him. There were no mirrors, so they weren’t spying on him that way. Maybe they did respect his privacy. But that couldn’t be true, he didn’t deserve it. He was a low-life in the grand scheme of things, only a weapon, a thing…so why did they treat him like a person?

***

The boy was still sitting in the bed when Bruce entered the room to check on him. Bucky was with him for translation and security (in case the boy decided to run to attack), so he stood by the door. The boy seemed much smaller and younger now. He didn’t look comfortable, but off an air of neutrality when Bruce entered the room, then becoming closed off when Bucky entered behind. It was clear he didn’t see Bruce as a threat due to the way he reacted to him.

Bruce smiled sweetly. “Your arm is okay, no sign of infection.” He paused to let Bucky translate. The boy didn’t move. “You have some crazy healing. White blood cell count is off the charts.” Pause again. “I want to know, why is your healing so advanced?” Stop, translate.

“Я не обязан вам отвечать.” The boy said. Bucky sighed and Bruce turned to him expectantly.

“He said he’s not going to answer us.” Bruce’s gentle smile turned into a small frown.

“Предатель.” The boy stared at Bucky, eyes not moving, body still. “Предатель.” He repeated. Again and again and again, until they left the room. Bruce sighed and rubbed a hand down his face.

“We can’t get any information without a proper blood test. We need to analyse his DNA to see if it is a natural born mutation, or due to experimentations.” Bruce mumbled, noting down everything on a clipboard outside of the boy’s room.

“He must have been raised in HYDRA.” Bucky said. “It was much easier for me and Wanda to return to our heads, more than Nat because she had been raised into it. Wanda and I were brainwashed, which meant we had the underlying thoughts from before. He doesn’t show any sign of that. He must have been raised there.”

“We can probably ask Friday to set up a search of the missing persons database to see if there is anything that matches his description so we can get a name.” Bruce proposed. Bucky nodded and they both headed off to the labs. They spent a while rigging Friday up for the search before Tony came in with a suggestion.

“What if he was born Russian?”

***

The Spider grabbed one of the machines beside his bed and threw it at the window. No effect. He groaned and walked towards the window. His inspected all edges of the window very carefully for anything that could signify as a weakness. When he reached the bottom right corner, there was a small logo. For Stark Industries. Which meant it was superhuman protected. As was everything else in this stupid room. In this stupid building.

The Spider yelled without words.

He was helpless. The Avengers were perfectly prepared to fight and trap him. He was stuck here. His tracker was missing. His organic webbing was aching in his arms from disuse. He wanted to scream. He was trapped there, in a cage with no noticeable monitoring system, but there had to be one. Who in their right mind wouldn’t monitor him? He was dangerous.

“Let me go. Let me go. Let me go!” He screamed in Russian at the walls of the room, at the door, at any possible place they could hear him. He sighed and slipped onto the floor.

***

Natasha watched the camera from the boy’s room carefully. He screamed in Russian after climbing about on the window. He sat for a few seconds, before picking up the heart monitor he had thrown at the window and placing it back neatly where it had been. If it had been her, she would have left it where it was. The same with the others (Bucky, Wanda and Loki). Why was this boy so different to them? He seemed more rebellious, but he put the monitor back. Did he have some form of OCD? Was he raised differently?

Or was this who he was before he was in HYDRA? Was there a chance for him yet?


	4. He Struggled and Kept His Guard Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up  
> Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of  
> The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow or barter"
> 
> \--Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson/Marquis de Lafayette, Hamilton

The Spider sat quietly on the bed after that. He didn’t respond to anything the Avengers said when they entered his room. He sat as still as he could. Only moved when they grabbed his arm and stood him up, took blood pressure and samples, they took him to the toilet and when they brought him food. It was all food you can eat with your hands. They weren’t stupid then. They knew not to trust him with cutlery, even plastic. And still, someone always stayed in the room while he ate.

Sometimes it Tony Stark, sometimes the Traitor, and other times the Black Widow. The Traitor and Black Widow stayed silent, watching his every move carefully. He didn’t take his eyes off of them either.

Stark, however, was irritable. He wouldn’t stop talking. His ramblings were in English, so it wasn’t like the Spider could understand anything he said. He knew this had to be a plan. Annoy and frustrate him into reacting. But he wouldn’t help them.

This was what the Spider was trained for.

***

This boy was guarding himself, taking notice of everything but revealing nothing. Tony was trying his best to frustrate the kid into talking, trying to learn more about him in hopes of getting information to add to the search of the database for the boy’s real name. Anything.

Once to boy had finished his lunch, Tony took the empty plate away, said goodbye to the boy and left the room. He tossed the plate into the kitchen sink and then travelled down to his lab. Friday was still running a check, a very careful one at that, of missing children matching the boy’s description, age and aged up photographs, except now, this was a search of the Russian database.

Tony sat, tinkering with a gauntlet, until Friday left off a _bing_ sound. A file was open on the screen with a picture of a smiling young boy, who couldn’t have been more than four at the time it was taken. He had curly brown hair, a pair of red and blue glasses and a giddy smile on his face.

“Is this him?” Tony’s voice was hoarse and quiet. “Pie-oh-ter?”

“Pyotr, sir.” Friday corrected. “He was a Russian boy that was reported missing when he was three. A search into the family was undertaken, and it was determined that the parents had given the child away to earn extra money, as they were extremely poor and on the verge of homelessness.”

“Shit.” Tony whispered, covering his mouth and sitting back in his chair. “What is Pyotr in English?”

“Pyotr is a rough translation of Peter. The names mean ‘rock’ or ‘stone’.” Friday answered.

“Well, let’s go tell him his name, as see if we get a reaction out of him.” Tony clapped his hands together, grabbed a tablet and walked back to the b – _Peter’s_ room.

***

The Spider remained stoic as Stark entered the room again. He followed him very carefully with his eyes. Stark remained at a distance, as he usually did. Stark sat in the chair on the other side of the room as the bed, as they all did. He started ranting in English. Again.

“So, I was doing some research, trying to find your real name.” The blabber meant nothing. “We were originally looking on the American database, but then I realised, you could be Russian.” Nonsense gibberish. “So I had my AI search the Russian database and we found a little boy, that would be your age now, called Pyotr.”

Flinch.

Why did he flinch?

Pyotr.

What does that mean?

Why did he flinch?

What does Pyotr mean to him?

Stark stood up slowly, pulling a tablet slowly into the Spider’s vision. It was large, black, with a silver insignia on the back of it. Stark swiped a couple of times on the screen and then handed the device to the Spider. He slowly grabbed and stared at the screen.

There was a small boy, the Spider couldn’t tell what age, with red and blue glasses that were a little too big for his face, curly brown hair that was slightly too long and in need of a cut, a plaster on his right cheek, and deep brown eyes.

The Spider was malfunctioning. His chest hurt, his thoughts foggy and misshapen. Malfunction. Error. Error.

“ошибка.” He whispered. “ошибка.” He looked up at Stark, tears somehow brewing in his eyes at this picture. “What is this, Stark?” He spat, in cold, hard Russian. He knew Stark couldn’t understand him. He pointed to the picture, then at his chest, hoping Stark would understand his meaning. He needed to know.

“That’s you.” Stark said, in English. “Wait, hang on.” Stark took something out of his pocket, typing quickly on the screen. A miniature tablet? When he finished typing, he pressed a button on the side of the device, and tapped the screen again.

“That’s you.” Emerged from the device, in Russian. “We think, anyway.”

Pyotr. He looked down at the picture again. He was Pyotr.

“Peter?” Stark said. The Spider – Pyotr – looked up at Stark confused. Stark typed again.

“Peter is Pyotr in English.” Tapping. “Is it alright if I call you that?” Pyotr nodded. He was Pyotr. Why had HYDRA lied to him. They told him his name was the Spider. They lied. If they lied about his name, could they be lying about the other things. He knew the Avengers couldn’t be lying in this case. Once he heard the name, something lit up inside him. A beacon that had been covered by HYDRA to keep him submissive and a pet. They called him a spider, they saw him as less than human.

Tears filled his eyes and he hugged the picture of himself to his chest. “The glasses.” Pyotr held the screen out to Stark, pointing at the red and blue glasses on his face. “I need them still. Haven’t changed.” Stark handed him the smaller tablet for him to type on. He typed the Russian out, and the English was spoken by the device. Stark nodded and left, taking only the mini tablet with him, leaving Pyotr with the picture.

***

Tony Stark was completely unprepared for the fast change in character. First, Peter seemed to be standoffish and stubborn, but after being shown the picture, his whole demeanour changed. He seemed to turn into a little child who didn’t know where he was.

It was shocking to say the least.

Tony quickly found Peter’s glasses prescription in his file and sent them to an opticians near the compound. Peter had said his prescription hadn’t changed. The glasses should get there in a couple of days’ time, and maybe it would help Peter feel more comfortable.

He walked into the living room, where Natasha was currently thrashing Clint, Steve and Bucky at Mario Kart. He smirked, and collapsed onto the armchair next to the sofa.

“Peter.” Tony said.

Natasha paused the game. “What?” She turned quickly to him.

“His name is Peter. Or Pyotr.”

“He has a name.” Clint laughed.

“It suits him.” Natasha said, and started the game up again.

Tony hoped they could help Peter feel as comfortable with them as they did with each other. And he knew four specific people that would be best to do that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I watched Endgame for my birthday yesterday. There will be no spoilers in this fic, I can guarantee that. But go watch it, it's amazing.


	5. The World Turned Upside-down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "We won!  
> The world turned upside down!"
> 
> \--Yorktown, Full Company, Hamilton

Pyotr sat on the bed still staring at the picture of himself. Stark came in a few hours ago to tell him his glasses were being made now and should be arriving within a few days.

Why did Hydra lie to him? They must have been trying to keep him weak and subservient to them. He was their pretty pet spider for years. He didn’t even realise that they didn’t care about him. Yes, he was a weapon, he knew this, but they didn’t see him as a human, even then. He was a tool, a pet, something for them to own and control and show off their power. They needed him because the Winter Soldier had defected and betrayed them. He was their backup. He was unimportant. He was small.

He was Pyotr. And they kept that away from him.

The Avengers showed him who he was. Pyotr. They gave him back his name. They called him Peter and ‘he’, rather than ‘Spider’ and ‘it’. They cared. But why? What did he do to deserve their care? He was rude and disrespectful. He should be punished.

But they were different to Hydra. They had different morals, different background, different…everything. The Avengers were good, they looked out for people other than themselves. Hydra didn’t. Hydra was corrupt, selfish and a group of terrorists. And he was raised to be one like them.

***

The days slowly ticked by for Peter. He got his glasses. Tony had tried to get a pair as close to his original as possible. It became much easier for him to see properly. The light became filtered, distance was no longer blurry.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t get rid of his instincts that easily. Sometimes, they would enter the room to find Peter on the ceiling, webs hanging from every corner. They trusted him once with plastic cutlery, noting how much he was improving, which quickly proved to be a mistake (He had stolen the knife and sharpened it during the night, frightening the crap out of Bruce).

They also began to realise how much like a spider he really is. For starters, his blood was blue. In humans, oxygen in the blood is bound to haemoglobin, which contains iron, turning the blood red. In spiders however, the oxygen is bound to hemocyanin, which contains copper instead of iron. It made him look a tiny bit bluer, rather than pinkish.

At one point, Tony came in without a warning, and Peter threw a hair from his arm at him. They later did research and found that some tarantulas will fling tiny, irritating hairs, known as urticating hairs, to thwart predators—similar to the way a porcupine uses its quills as defence.

Peter couldn’t thermoregulate. He always had to wear a jumper with a blanket on top. If he got too cold, he would go into a hibernation-like state. He acted very weird when he came out of his hibernation. He would just walk on the ceiling trying to find food. It scared the crap out of Bruce when he walked in one day to find an upside down teenager asking for food.

***

Pyotr was hesitant. He knew they were too. They didn’t take him out of that room, they didn’t trust him. That was fair enough, he was still dangerous. They didn’t know what he was capable of doing. He didn’t know. He acted out, he still maintained some Hydra ideals, and he was raised by them, he was still going to act the way they taught him to.

He didn’t want to. But he couldn’t help it.

He flinched easily, at the smallest movements. He kept a sharp object of him at all times, never using it, but liking the comfort it brought. He was closed off from the Avengers, only doing things on his own terms. He still relied on them, something he despised doing, but it was the only way for him to get food.

He knew it would only be a matter of time before they got too curious. They would experiment on him and figure out how he worked. He knew they would one day.

Pyotr tried to give up his fear, but Hydra had drilled it into him too early. That fear would stick with him through the majority of his life.

Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) and the Traitor (who they told him to call Bucky) were attempting to teach him English. For now, they translated, but they were trying to make him independent. He picked it up quite easily, but it was still broken, causing him to stutter or not make complete sense, and he still had quite a thick accent. Hawkeye (who everyone called Clint or Barton) was teaching him sign language. He realised it helped him with learning English.

“Hey, kid.” Stark said as he entered the room. Pyotr was sitting on the bed, reading an English book to help him with his reading. It wasn’t as easy as speaking, but he was doing okay.

“Stark? W-why are you…here?” Pyotr was trying. He stuttered, had to pause to translate in his head, but all the Avengers were patient with him. It was weird to him, how they could be so patient. At Hydra, if things were done slow he would have been punished. That was how the world worked. But, apparently not.

“I’m here to offer you a new room.”

“что за хрень?” Pyotr whispered to himself. “My o-own r-r-room?”

“Yeah, your own room. C’mon.”


	6. No One Else Was in The Room When it Happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "My God!  
> In God we trust  
> But we never really know what got discussed  
> Click-boom then it happened  
> And no one else was in the room when it happened."
> 
> \--The Room Where It Happened, Aaron Burr, Hamilton

Tony had worked on special upgrades to a regular guest room on his floor to accommodate Peter. He added soundproofing and light dimmers. He had the bed built into a notch in the wall that only Peter could get to (with a secret hidden ladder for the others but that was only for emergencies and Tony was the only one who knew about it). There were bars and other notches for Peter to climb on if he got antsy and didn’t want to go to the gym/training room. Some of the notches in the walls had pillows. One had a sliding door at the front that was soundproofed so if he really needed a moment to himself, he could have it. There were special heaters in the room too.

There were other accommodations made to the rest of the floor as well. The caffeine was child locked (Peter acted really weird if he had the stuff). Sharp objects were child locked too, but also had secret trackers on them just in case Peter managed to get a hold of one. Tony would be given an alert if anything child locked from Peter was somehow taken by him. On a happier note, there were corners that were adapted to take Peter’s webs better in case he had a “spider instinct”. (He tended to get those quite often. He would suddenly just feel the need to act like a spider which led to him scaring people as he climbed on walls or hissed.)

Tony was very excited as he guided Peter to the room. He couldn’t wait to see the boy’s reaction, considering Peter seemed to switch from crying to emotionless at the flick of a switch. Tony assumed it was how Hydra had raised him to be. It was all he could think of to justify it. Despite Peter’s confusing reactions, he hoped he would have a very positive one to his new room. Tony had also decorated the room with posters to make it less like his room in the Hydra compound and the Med Bay room. To give it a bit of life.

“W-what…how does it…look…like?” Peter stuttered. He was fiddling with the hem of his shirt with one hand and the other was brushing over his bottom lip.

“You’ll see. I designed it for you.” Tony answered, ignoring Peter’s broken English, knowing what he was trying to say. They continued walking for a minute more before they reached the door. Tony opened the door and moved to the side, gesturing for Peter to enter first. Immediately the kid’s eyes widened and the took slow steps into the room. He stood still for a moment, then looked at Tony.

“Go on. It’s yours. Do what you want.” Tony assured, nodding towards the room and crossing his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall. Peter seemed to change. He seemed much happier. He rushed over to the wall, quickly grabbing one of the bars and easily pulling himself up. He swung over to the next bar on the wall, then the next, and then he was by the notch in the wall with the bed. He pulled himself into it and laid back against the mattress. He sighed contentedly.

Then he seemed to realise what he was doing.

He climbed out of the bed and fell to the floor, landing on both his feet. He bowed his head, laced his arms behind his back and widened his stance a little. He averted his eyes and Tony could see his shirt moving slightly. He guessed that Peter was playing with his shirt for comfort. He tended to do that.

Tony sighed and rubbed his forehead with a hand. He kept his hands in front of him, empty, so Peter could see and keep his feelings of _threat_ to a minimum. He walked very slowly towards Peter, knowing exactly why the boy was standing and acting this way.

“It’s alright, Pete.” Tony whispered, keeping his voice gentle. “I made this room for you, you are allowed to act however you want in here. If you get overwhelmed elsewhere in the building, you can come here. If you just need a moment alone, you can come here.” Tony was standing right in front of Peter now, but not so close as to trigger a bad response from the boy. “You will not get in trouble for enjoying this. I promise you.”

Peter looked up carefully at Tony. He seemed much smaller than he had earlier, treating Tony as a superior. He was assuring Tony that he knew he was in charge. And Tony hated it. The kid looked so scared, like one wrong move could cause Tony to flip and get angry. Logically, Peter knew that he wouldn’t, but Hydra had drilled it into him since he was very little. If you disobeyed the rules, you get punished.

“It’s okay Peter.” Tony reassured. Peter looked up, his expression more secure. Peter stood on his tip-toes and wrapped his arms around Tony’s neck. Tony stood for a second, unsure of what was happening. Then he wrapped his arm around Peter’s back.

Peter pulled away quickly, stone-faced. He smirked a little, then rushed back up to the bed in the wall. Tony was left standing there, a little confused, but soon Peter was asleep. Tony smiled and then left the room, closing the door behind him.

***

Pyotr wasn’t sure what made him hug Stark. He had to take a moment to register what Stark had said to him after he stood to attention. Then he hugged Stark. The man who kidnapped him from Hydra…the man who had given him his name back after Hydra had taken it away. The man who gave him glasses just because he wanted them, who gave him a place to stay, gave him food, got people to give him English lessons, and had now given him a room.

Pyotr owed a lot to Tony Stark.

But the best he could do right now was give him a hug.

***

Tony tried to gush about Peter’s hug to the rest of Avengers, but none of them quite believed him. None of them were there when it happened. There were no video feeds. And that didn’t really matter. It was a moment just for Tony and Peter to share.


	7. What Comes Next?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "What comes next?  
> You've been freed  
> Do you know how hard it is to lead?"
> 
> \--What Comes Next, King George III, Hamilton

Progress was…slow seems like too much of an understatement. Peter seemed to go backwards severely in progress. He seemed to regress to a little boy, and it was taking him time to ‘grow up’. He was immature as he wasn’t raised properly, then too grown up and mature for his age. It broke their hearts to see Peter like this.

Tony did some more research into Peter’s family, hoping to find pictures of his parents, or siblings if there were any. Most of it came up empty. Hydra had managed to keep almost everything to do with Peter’s family under wraps.

 _Almost_ everything.

See, there were tiny flaws in Hydra’s story for Peter’s disappearance that didn’t make sense to Tony. So he picked away at them, revealing layers and layers of mystery which he, Friday, Natasha and Clint combed through together. Natasha translated any Russian that had been left behind, Friday and Tony found the new information and Clint sorted it all into three files: Fake Story, Peter’s Family, Peter. Soon, they had the full picture in front of them.

Pyotr Parshikov was born in the year 2001. He was born to Mariya (which Natasha translated to Mary or Maria) and Richard Parshikov. Peter has asthma and needed glasses, and seemed to have a weakened immune system. There were a lot of hospital bills for flus and fevers and infections. He had never been vaccinated. His family was too poor. Peter was a smart kid, a couple years ahead of his age.

Peter was taken when he was three. Then it seemed all memory of him was wiped away by Hydra. (They still couldn’t figure out whether his parents gave him away for money or he was kidnapped because of his intelligence). They next turned onto the Hydra database.

Peter was given a serum similar to the super soldier serum when he was seven. Before then he was being raised, brainwashed, erased…anything Hydra could think of. Then he was given the serum. It wasn’t through injection like Cap, it was through a spider bite. There was a video. Peter had been strapped to a surgical table. The spider had been placed on his chest with a heated glass over it so the only thing the spider could do was bite Peter. The glass was lifted away and the spider was placed in a box. There was a ring of burnt skin around a small bump. Peter was screaming.

Next were videos and records of Peter’s training. He would take down and kill many Hydra soldiers that were placed against him. There were some other children too, that, after some further research, they found were mutants, born with their powers. They were clearly not raised the same way as Peter because they went down extremely easily. Sometimes Peter was stopped, sometimes he killed them.

The final file they found was the latest update on Peter. His powers were fully fledged, he was going out on missions. He was responsible for too much. Too many people had been hurt at his hands.

They turned away from that line of research. It was too sad to see the boy in files, The Spider, as the same boy living with them, the tiny scared Peter. They decided to look back at Peter’s parents, Mariya and Richard. They went off the grid for a year or so, then suddenly came back onto the map with a hospital bill for a child with the flu…They had another child. Peter had a sister.

Ariadna Parshikov.

She was the same age as Peter. Peter had a twin sister.

***

Pyotr hit the red fabric again. And again. And again. And the fabric and chain broke at the same time. He grunted, pulled the bag off of the hook and threw it on the pile of about six other broken bags all laid out on a growing pile of sand. He hadn’t even been in the gym that long. He grabbed another one from the other pile of new bags, the ones he hadn’t gotten to yet, placing it on the hook and beginning the routine again.

The nightmare still lingered at the back of his mind. Black strings of mist fingered at his brain. He shook his head and punched again. Again, again, again… He swung around and punched at the person who was standing behind him.

They dodged.

Traitor.

“Trai-… _Bucky_.” Pyotr whispered. He held his hand to his chest, refusing to look Bucky in the eye.

“Two things.” Bucky started. He moved forward and unhooked the punching bag. “There are specially made bags for enhanced people.” He grabbed it from the large cupboard that Pyotr had built the original pile from. “And two, wrap your knuckles.” Pyotr must have looked confused because Bucky held out his hand.

“D-don’t t-t-touch me.” Pyotr warned, taking a small step back from the man, who, in that moment, felt twice his height.

“I’m gonna need to if I’m going to teach you to not bleed whenever you punch.” Bucky pointed at Pyotr’s hands. “Look at them.” Pyotr’s knuckles were split open, bleeding, little bits of sand and fabric fibres stuck in the cuts.

“Yes? Hydra let…ne-never let me. I don’t k-know.” Pyotr stuttered.

“Then I’ll teach you.”

After that, Pyotr had taken to wrapping his knuckles every morning, even if he wasn’t going to the gym and using the punching bags. It made him feel more comfortable. After that, his knuckles started to heal quite well.

***

“Peter?” Stark called for him from the lab, while Pyotr was sitting in the living room the floor above. He quickly dog-eared the book he was reading, ‘The Stand’ by Steven King, and placed it on the coffee table in front of him. He used the lift to go downstairs to the lab. He knocked on the glass door and saw Tony sitting at one of the desks with a holographic file open in front of him.

“You c-called?” Pyotr whispered, playing with the hem of his shirt. Stark smiled softly and beckoned Pyotr over.

“I have something to show you, and talk to you about.” Tony waved a hand at the file, which moved to show a picture of a girl, about Pyotr’s age. She had a bob of curly brown hair, and she had a burn mark over one eye.

“Who…who is s-she?”

“Her name’s Ariadna.” Tony looked at Pyotr with a gentle look on his face. “She’s your twin sister.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I went to comic con in London last Saturday. It was brilliant.
> 
>  
> 
> Ooo, Peter's got a sister. ;)


	8. Take A Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Take a break,  
> Run away with us for the summer,  
> let's go upstate"
> 
> \--Take a Break, Eliza Hamilton, Hamilton

Stark was doing everything he could to get in contact with Pyotr’s sister. Pyotr was spending his time looking through her file, the one Stark and Romanoff had made together. It was all in Russian, which made it easier for him to read, but there was an English version to help with Pyotr’s learning.

Ariadna was his twin sister. She looked quite a bit like him too. She had grown up with their parents until she was 10, when their parents had died. Which Pyotr wasn’t sure if he was okay with it or not. He didn’t remember them, but they were his parents. Either way, he knew he wanted to meet his sister. And Stark was doing everything he could to make it happen.

***

Ariadna had been very difficult to find. Tony had been searching for days to find out where she was right now. Apparently, she had ran away to America, hiding out on a ship when she was 14. She looked so much like Peter. She was living in Washington D.C. Not too far from New York.

Tony planned the trip for in a month. He had to situate Peter with the world outside of the Compound. So, he decided to take him to the library.

Peter loved books. Like, a lot. He read all the classics. He had finished ‘The Stand’ and was now reading ‘Pet Sematary’. He really liked Steven King. But he had also read some Charles Dickens, he liked ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Anne of Green Gables’, and the more modern ‘Harry Potter’, but Peter always had a love for the classics.

Tony and Natasha. Tony would go because he was the best at keeping Peter calm, and Natasha would be there to help with any words he couldn’t quite get. He would always be reading in a room with either Nat or Bucky, just in case he still struggled.

***

Stark ended up taking Pyotr to a small bookshop in a quieter area of the city instead. He thought it would be nice and easy to start with, and they tended to have much better books. Pyotr fell in love basically as soon as they got there. He snuck off to a sort of hidden area, and surrounded himself with a group of books, a few rare ones from Steven King, some unknown authors and more. One pile was the entire series of books called ‘The Chronicles of St Mary’s’, by Jodi Taylor. A series about time travel. Pyotr was reading the first book (‘Just One Damned Thing After Another’), when a pair of army boots appeared in front of him. He looked up cautiously, making sure he could see Nat and Stark out of the corner of his eyes.

“Hey.” The girl wearing the army boots said in a bored voice. Pyotr curled up a little bit more.

“H-hello?” Pyotr stuttered in surprise. He dog-eared the book (he knew he was going to buy it), and placed it in his lap.

“I’m Michelle. What’s your name?”

“Pyotr. Stark and…the o-others c-calls me Peter.”

“Where are you from?” She asked, moving a pile of the books closer to Pyotr and sitting where they had been. She took the book from the top (‘Anne of Green Gables’) and flicked through the first few pages.

“Russia. I-I only am…am only…j-just learning…to s-speak E-English.” Pyotr stuttered, trying his best to make his sentence coherent. “You?”

“I’m just from New York. But Russia, that’s cool.” Michelle started reading the book properly. “So, why’d you move to America?” Pyotr smirked a little and leaned closer to her.

“I did n-not have…a-a nice f-family.” He whispered. “Avengers…s-saved me.”

“Cool.” Then she smirked back at him. They sat in silence, each reading different books. Pyotr kept glancing over at Michelle with a little smile on his face. He had read enough books and watched enough films and TV shows to know that he wanted to be friends with Michelle.

***

“Hey, Pete. Time to go.” Tony rounded the corner to see Peter and a random girl surrounded by careful piles of books that the two had built. He laughed a little. “What’s going on here? Who’s this?”

“This is…Mishel?” Peter tried.

“Michelle.” The girl corrected. “My name’s Michelle. I’ve been sitting here reading with him.” Michelle looked back down her book. “When he said Stark, I didn’t know he meant Tony Stark.”

“Извини. Sorry.” Peter apologised, piling up some of the books that he wanted to take, and others that he was going to put back.

“So, why were you out here, anyway?” Michelle asked the boy. “Not that I’m complaining, but not many people come here.”

“I-I-I-I…” Peter looked at Tony in desperation, begging him to help with an answer.

“Peter was raised in Russia by some not nice people. The Avenger’s saved him. He’s…not very good in social situations so we thought that he should start out small. And he’s obsessed with books.” Tony explained. It wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t the whole truth. He only left things out.

“Well, if he ever wants come here again, I work here.” Michelle said, picking up the pile of books Peter was putting back. “If I give you my number, you can message me whenever he wants to come and I can join you.”

“W-why you wo-…would you do th-that for m-me?” Peter asked her. Michelle smirked a little bit.

“Because I thought you seemed quite comfortable with me here.”

Peter smiled gently at her. He played with the hem of his jumper and kept flicking his eyes up to her face. Oh. Okay.

“I don’t see why that would be a problem, but you have to keep him secret for now.” Tony warned. “We don’t know if they’re still looking for him or not.”

“That’ll be fine.” Michelle stated, her face stoic again. She grabbed a notebook from the front desk with the till and wrote down her number. Tony took it and put it in his pocket. Then, Michelle started scanning the books they were going to buy and listed off the price. While Tony was getting the right amount of money out of his wallet, Peter and Michelle were tying up the books with string, to make it easier to carry. Michelle struggled a little with the weight, but Peter didn’t. The girl didn’t even question it.

“T-thank you…Michelle.” Peter whispered.

“Call me MJ. Only my dad calls me Michelle, and Ned when he’s being annoying.” MJ replied. “And you’re welcome. See you soon.” She waved them off, and turned back into the shop, going to put away the books that Peter had pulled out, but didn’t buy.

Tony decided that waiting a while before taking Peter to see Ariadna was a good idea. Now, the kid had a friend his age.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The series Peter reads in the shop, 'The Chronicles of St Mary's', is my favourite book series. they are very funny and very well written and I seriously recommend them, especially if you are British.


	9. More Than Survive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm never gonna be the cool guy,  
> I'm more the one who's left out.  
> Of all the characters at school  
> I am not the one who the story's about.  
> Why can't someone just help me out?  
> And teach me how to thrive.  
> Help me to more than survive."
> 
> \-- More Than Survive, Jeremy Heere, Be More Chill

Pyotr met up with Michelle – MJ -- several more times. She never pushed, she never asked questions unless she had to. She always knew when to ask and when to hold back, when to just sit with him, bother him, or leave him alone. It was very comfortable.

However, the peace couldn’t last very long. It never did for Pyotr.

He had his first breakdown when MJ had been visiting the tower. He had done very well to not breakdown since he was found. He had felt it brimming in his chest, just under his heart and between his lungs. It was building and building, just waiting to blow. He was a ticking time bomb. And today was the day the counter reached zero.

The day started out normally. Pyotr woke up, ate breakfast, had an English lesson with Romanoff, ate lunch, and Michelle visited. They spent the afternoon reading to each other in the living room, while the Avenger’s pretended they weren’t spying on them. Pyotr knew. Of course he knew. He was raised to know about everything around him.

This time, Pyotr was sitting with his head in Michelle’s lap while she read to him. It was a random book this time, neither of them had heard of it or the writer. She was gently stoking his hair, turning the pages of the book while there were no gaps in her speech as she changed, moving between the pages fluidly. Pyotr knew it was one of the calmest moments he’s had in his entire life. It was supposed to be. But his mind drifted as the words faded away. Everything was disappearing.

Pyotr’s mind shut down. He suddenly couldn’t see, and there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air. He breathed shorter and harder, trying to pull enough into his lungs, but there was never enough. His mind raced, memories filling his senses. He couldn’t breathe and he couldn’t stop crying. He couldn’t hear. He was back in the Empty Room. He couldn’t be there again. If he was there, he wasn’t free. It was all a hallucination. No. No. No no no no no no no…

“Извините. Я стану лучше.” The Spider begged, not caring who was listening, but crying out for his handler’s help all the same. “Я исправлюсь. Обещаю.” The Russian flew off of his tongue easily. He needed help. He didn’t want to be alone. He couldn’t be alone… “Пожалуйста!”

_Peter…_

The Spider froze, curling up in the corner. The voice. The voice. Who did it belong to? Who was it?

_Pyotr, it’s okay…_

Shut up. Shut up. Stop talking. He’s not Pyotr. He’s the Spider. He can’t be Pyotr. He’s not allowed to be Pyotr. They told him that. They beat it out of him. He’s can’t be Pyotr. Not allowed, stop calling him Pyotr. Stop it. Stop it.

“Оставь меня в покое!” He screamed. Then regretted it. He wasn’t allowed to shout at them. He had to comply. Otherwise he was punished. He hated punishments. He was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

_Pyotr, listen to me…It’s okay…You’re safe now…We saved you…You don’t have to worry about them now…I promise you…_

It was English. Pyotr understood English. The Spider didn’t. If he knew English then he must be Pyotr. He was Pyotr. But he’s not allowed to Pyotr. They were calling him Pyotr, so it must be safe right now. So he was allowed to be Pyotr. Good. He liked Pyotr. He didn’t like Паук.

He opened his eyes. There were blurry faces in front of him. Michelle, Stark, Romanoff, Rogers… He laid his head back down.

“Hey, Peter, you back now?” Stark asked softly. Pyotr nodded slowly, closing his eyes again, burying himself into Michelle’s stomach. His head was still on her lap. She returned to stroking his hair softly and gently.

***

“What happened?” Tony whispered to Bruce as he laid Peter in his bed. Michelle had to go home, but the boy didn’t wake up, so he took Peter to his room and bid MJ farewell.

“I believe it was a flashback triggered by a panic attack.” Bruce rubbed a hand over his eyes under his glasses. “He very clearly has a form of PTSD that we have been ignoring. We’ve been trying to help him adjust to normal life, but he is still getting over the fact that what they did to him was wrong.” Bruce shuffled around the room, adjusting Peter’s blanket. “He’s still coming to terms with everything that happened to him. I’m surprised he didn’t break down earlier.”

“So…” Tony hesitated. “What do we do?”

“We get him therapy, with a professional. It’s all we can do for him for now.”

“Okay.”

“And bring him to his sister.”

“What?” Tony sputtered. “It’s way too early for that! He just had a panic attack and you want to bring something possibly triggering for him into his life?” Tony was slightly pissed. Bruce raised his hands.

“Look, I think that bringing Peter to Ariadna might help him. She is his blood, his twin sister. He needs to see her.” Bruce sighed. “I just think it would be better sooner, rather than later.” Then he left the room.

Tony sighed as well, in a mixture of frustration and relief. He wasn’t going to lie to himself, he wanted to bring Ariadna to Peter too, but he knew that something from his past could be potentially triggering for him. Tony was supposed to protect him, he had to do what he thought would be safest for Peter’s health.

 _‘But what about his mental health?’_ A small voice at the back of his mind suddenly chirped to life.

It was right. Ariadna would be better for Peter’s mental health than he originally thought. He was going to contact her tomorrow morning, when Peter is bound to feel better.

“мама.” Peter whispered, still asleep. “Я скучаю по тебе. Я люблю тебя, мама.” Tony pushed the boy’s hair back a little and pulled the covers up more.

Tony sighed again. Taking care of a traumatised, super-powered, mistreated teenager was harder than he thought. He should’ve expected that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Извините. Я стану лучше.” -- I'm sorry. I'll be better.  
> "Я исправлюсь. Обещаю.” -- I can fix it. I promise.  
> "Пожалуйста!” -- Please!  
> "Оставь меня в покое!” -- Leave me alone!  
> "мама.” -- Mother.  
> "Я скучаю по тебе. Я люблю тебя, мама.” -- I miss you. I love you, mother.


	10. More Than Survive (Reprise)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm never gonna be the cool guy  
> But maybe not so left out.  
> Of all the characters at school  
> I might be the one that the story's about."
> 
> \-- More than survive (Reprise), Jeremy Heere, Be More Chill

“Why am I here again, brother?”

“There is a boy here that I feel you may relate to. You could help him or he could help you. You need friends, brother, other than me.”

“Ugh, fine.”

Pyotr moved away from the door, hearing the footsteps come his way. He sat down on the sofa in the living room and hurriedly started reading his book. The door near slammed open as Thor kicked it. He skipped in while a skinny man with long dark hair followed behind him.

“Spider Child!” Thor cheered as he saw Pyotr sitting on the sofa. Pyotr waved gently at him. Thor flopped against the sofa and peeked at the book Pyotr was reading and started asking questions about it. Pyotr tried his best to answer the questions, without having to speak much, but he was too focused on the man standing awkwardly in the doorway. Thor seemed to read his mind, and gasped.

“My apologies, Spider Child.” Thor stood up and pulled the man over to the sofa. “This is my brother, Loki.” Pyotr stayed silent, as did Loki. They both observed each other carefully and without words. Then Pyotr nodded and sat back down. Loki sat a reasonable distance away from him. Thor remained stood, confused.

***

Stark was leaving. To pick up his sister. Pyotr’s sister. He was going to meet his sister. His twin sister. His perfectly healthy, non-traumatised, happy twin sister that had a normal life that he never got. The sister that had been living in Washington D.C all this time. A different country, until he arrived here, when she was barely a state over. She was so far away, and then so close. And Stark was going to find her for him.

However, Pyotr was stuck at the tower until she arrived. It made it harder for him to stay still. He was in the gym right now, training with Barnes while Romanoff tested him on his English. She didn’t even need to anymore, he was near fluent and was speaking English constantly now. There were a couple of odd words he had to say in Russian first, and then flip to English. Or, he would start speaking a sentence to someone in Russian without realising and then have to correct himself and start again.

Loki was in the gym too, but was only watching. Him and Pyotr were always together now. They hardly ever spoke to each other, but they didn’t need to. They just enjoyed each other’s company quite stoically. Pyotr would randomly hand Loki a book and the god would start reading it. Then, when he had finished the book, he would hand it back to Pyotr, who would then hand him a new one. Again, all unspoken. It was a very easy friendship.

Michelle had popped round too. She had basically the same reaction to Loki that Pyotr had. Silent, but confirmative. She was sitting next to Loki, but she had a book in her hands, not bothering with watching Pyotr. She had come to many of the gym sessions over the past month. She seemed bored of them by now, but she seemed to keep sneaking glances at him as he worked. He pretended he didn’t notice. She pretended he didn’t notice as well.

***

Tony knocked on the door after he rang the doorbell. It was a house, on the edge of the city. At first, Tony had expected the girl to live in an orphanage, or a foster home. This was nothing like that, especially since she was adopted. Tony went over the facts he knew in his head.

Ariadna Parshikov. Now Ariadna James. Her adoptive parents were called Esme and Joanne, a married lesbian couple. They had clearly been okay with adopting a teenaged girl. And Ariadna was very happy to live with them. She was in therapy, not for any specific thing. Mostly to help with her adjustment to American life. Pyotr and Ariadna were both sixteen years old, according to the file. Ariadna had been living in the USA for two years now, but only with Esme and Joanne for one year.

Suddenly there was barking on the other side of the door, just before it opened. There was a woman on the other side holding back a dog, a black Labrador. Would Peter like a dog? He could probably qualify for a support animal, what with his PTSD and everything else piled on top. The woman was short. She wasn’t thin, but she definitely wasn’t fat. She had short dark hair and a warm look on her face. She was very confused that Tony McFreaking Stark was standing on her doorstep.

“Can I help you?” She asked.

“Hi, Tony Stark.” He held out his hand, which she shook quickly.

“Yeah, I know who you are. Why are you here?”

“Your daughter, Ariadna.”

“What about her?”

“I found a boy in Russia. He is her twin brother.”

The woman’s mouth dropped. “Why don’t you come inside?”

 

The woman was Joanne. She made him a cup of tea and then made herself one as well.

“I mean, we knew where she was from. We knew she had a twin brother. We just thought he was dead. Ari thought he was dead. She had been told he was. He had died when they were three. She remembered him though.” Joanne swiped a hand under her nose. “She stills mourns him sometimes. She has this locket, with a picture of him in it. From what we know, Pyotr was a very sick child. That was why it wasn’t much of surprise that he had died. But he’s alive?”

“Yes. We found him when we went on mission in Russia to clear out a Hydra base. We found him there. He spoke no English so we taught him. He has little to no memory of his life before Hydra. Either he was too young, or they wiped it from him. We did some research and found out his name was Pyotr. We call him Peter though.” Tony took a moment to breathe. “He has a lot of trauma. We did some more research, and we found out about Ariadna. We thought that finding her could help him. I understand if you don’t want to drag this up for her but-“

“No-no, I think it would be good for her. And, obviously, him. But we will have to ask Ari about this and Esme. But it think it should be okay.”

The door opened abruptly.

“Mum? I’m home!” A young, slightly accented voice called from the hallway. Footsteps became louder as Ariadna walked towards the kitchen. She paused in the doorway and her backpack fell from her shoulder.

“Holy shit.” She whispered under her breath. “Mr Stark? Wh-What-what are you d-doing here?”

“Ariadna? I know where your brother is.”

“Pyotr.” Ariadna whispered and sat on the chair across from Tony. “Tell me everything.”


	11. The Squip Lurks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> \-- The Squip Lurks, Be More Chill

“Sir, Stark is taking the girl to the Spider.”

“Then we need to be quick. Our weapon must be returned to us.”

“What is the plan, Sir?”

 

“You cannot fail me again. You know the consequences of when you do.”

“Of course sir. It won’t happen again sir. I promise.”

“You should. You’re staking your life on it.”

“Yes sir.”

***

Pyotr was sitting the living room, waiting. Michelle was next to him with a new pile of books for him to read, reading the first on the pile out loud. Tony had called ahead, saying he was on the jet with Ariadna, bringing her to the compound. Her mothers were coming as well, wishing to see Pyotr.

Obviously the boy was excited. He was going to meet his long lost sister. Or, well, his sister was going to meet her long lost brother, considering he was the one that was actually lost. However, at the same time, he was extremely nervous. What if she didn’t like him? How would her and her family react to knowing what he’d done? Would Stark have told them? Or does he have to? Would she be the complete opposite of that and be overbearing?

That was one of the reasons Pyotr liked MJ so much. She was forceful but not pushy, being aware of his boundaries and respecting them, while pushing just enough to get him to talk to her and calm down. She always knew how far to go. What if Ariadna didn’t? what if she went too far and Pyotr freaked out. He didn’t want to hurt her, but if she was overbearing then Pyotr would react instinctually. He would protect himself first, and that meant hurting the one that was nearest to him.

“Peter?” MJ said, interrupting Pyotr’s thoughts. “You drifted then.” She had a look of concern on her face. Pyotr smiled gently, assuring her he was okay. She didn’t fully believe him, but continued reading anyway, pulling Pyotr’s head into her lap. She started brushing her hair while reading the book and turning the page with one hand, somehow. Pyotr had stopped questioning it by that point. She was powerful when it came to her reading.

Pyotr and Michelle remained that way for another hour, until Stark arrived home.

Stark was guiding Ariadna and her family towards the lift and then onto their floor. He had taken their bags to their guest rooms while Banner and Wilson brought the family to the floor Pyotr and MJ were reading on.

When the door opened, Pyotr sprung to his feet. He had been on alert jerking every time had heard a door open, despite knowing that Friday would have told him when Stark was home, which she had done.

The door opened to reveal a girl at Pyotr and MJ’s age. She looked a lot like Pyotr, same hair colour eyes and general face shape. She had her hair tied up in a messy bun with strands sticking out or falling out. Her shirt was a Hard Rock Café one from San Francisco. She wore black leggings underneath a patterned knee length skirt. She wore Vans as well. She had a denim jacket covered with iron on patches.

“Pyotr.” She had less of an accent than Pyotr, but it was still there. She took a step towards him. Pyotr stood a little awkwardly, but ran towards her to envelope her in a hug. She smelt like strawberries and ginger. Her hair brushed against his neck as she hugged him in return.

“Ari…” He whispered, tears filling his eyes. “I missed you.” He muttered into her shoulder in Russian. She tightened her hold on him, breathing in his own scent. He thought he must smell of the shampoo and deodorant Stark had bought him when he had first been given his new room.

“I missed you too.” She replied in Russian as well.

“I’d forgotten you. They made me forget.” Pyotr pulled away a little to see Ariadna’s face. “I didn’t want to forget.” Then he pressed his face back into the crook of her neck.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I know.” Ariadna stroked his hair, smoothing down the small curls at the base of his neck.

“MJ.” Pyotr spoke in English again, turning to his friend sitting on the sofa. “Ari, this is my friend Michelle Jones.”

“My friends call me MJ.” MJ stood up from the sofa, holding her hand out for Ariadna to shake. The Russian girl took her hand and pulled her into a hug instead.

“Thank you for taking care of him.” She whispered. MJ smiled, loosely hugging her back. MJ wasn’t really a hug person, unless it was Pyotr.

While the girls were meeting, Pyotr turned to the women standing in the doorway next to Banner, watching the scene take place. He held out his hand to them, like MJ had done. Instead, they pulled him into a hug too.

“Hi.” Pyotr whispered, a little awkwardly.

“Oh, sorry sweetie.” The taller one apologised. “I’m Esme, and this is my wife Joanne. We’re Ari’s mothers.”

“How? You aren’t my mothers.” Pyotr was confused. He didn’t think Stark had explained it to him.

“Oh no, sweetheart.” The short one, Joanne shook her head, a sweet smile on her face. “We adopted her when she ran to America. We’ve been taking care of her, so she calls us her mothers.”

“Oh.”

“Would you rather we call you Peter or Pyotr?” Joanne asked.

“Peter please. Everyone calls me that, so I’m trying to respond to it more.”

“Of course dear.” Esme replied.

***

“The girl is at Stark Tower.”

“All preparations are in place.”

“The attack will begin tomorrow at 0900.”

“You better not let me down.”

“The Spider will be returned in, at minimum, two days.”

“Make sure it is only two days.”

“Yes sir.”

“That boy will torn away from his family once again. Our weapon will be returned to us, and our true plan may begin.”

“Yes sir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's taken so long for a short chapter. I've been on holiday and not exactly been home to write.  
> Also, I watched Far From Home. absolutely brilliant and heart breaking at the same time. I loved it.  
> hope you enjoyed this chapter. hopefully, the next chapter won't take so long.


	12. For a Kid Who's Lost Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Even when everyone around you thinks you're crazy  
> Even when everyone around you lets things go  
> And whether you're prepping for some test  
> Or you're miles from some goal  
> Or you're just trying to do what's best  
> For a kid who's lost control"
> 
> \--To Break In a Glove, Larry Murphy, Dear Evan Hansen

“How’d you get the burn on your face?” Pyotr asked quietly. Him and Ari were sitting in his room. He was fiddling with the end of his sleeve (Apparently Tony had gotten him shirts that were all too big for him because he looked adorable in them, and Ari agreed). Ari tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a weird croak.

“I…um…it was our mother.” Ari swallowed nervously. “She started getting sick of me after you were gone. She was petulant and wanted to use us for her own gain. She sold you when you were too much hassle for her. When I was nagging her, she would hurt me. One day, she was next to a kettle and threw it on my face. I took myself to the hospital. Our parents didn’t care about us.”

“She sold me. Because I was ill.”

“Yes.”

Tears were building in both their eyes. Ari reached over to him and placed her hand on his.

“I missed you, Pyotr.”

“I missed you, Ari.”

Then everything went to hell.

 

The building shook violently. The ceiling started to collapse. Pyotr moved quickly, pushing Ari to the floor. He raised his arms, catching the falling ceiling. Ari covered her head, screaming. Pyotr shifted, letting little bits of plaster fall from his hold. He froze, immediately regretted that decision. Ari looked up, uncovering her head and spotting an exit to the door, which was still standing. Pyotr told her to go, and she quickly crawled through the path and reached the door. Pyotr shifted again, letting the ceiling fall to one side, smashing and forcing a cloud of dust and plaster to rise. He moved quickly to reach Ariadna, rolling through the door with her.

Outside of Pyotr’s room was less destroyed than inside. Bits of ceiling had fallen and furniture was thrown about due to the shock. Glass was fractured and shattered on the floor. A large mirror that had been placed on one wall was cracked and missing pieces.

Pyotr checked over Ari, making sure she was unhurt. She tried to swat him away, but he persisted.

“Pyotr, I’m fine. I promise.” She argued.

“I have to make sure.” He whispered.

Lights were being shone up the empty lift and the staircase, which were both on opposite sides of the room. Pyotr immediately took up a fighting stance, preparing for anything. The group coming up the stairs were dressed in all black, carrying guns and crossbows and wearing bullet proof vests. Out of the lift came Iron Man with Hawkeye clinging to his leg. Pyotr angled his stance towards the soldiers coming out of the staircase, moving Ari behind him.

As soon as the soldiers reached the top, bullets and arrows went flying.

Pyotr moved with supernatural speed, flying between the soldiers, knocking them out with one hit each. Meanwhile, Iron Man and Hawkeye began fighting as well, taking out the stragglers, trying their best to protect Ariadna.

It didn’t work. An arrow hit her, implanting in her side. She froze…and fell onto the floor. Everything slowed down, noises becoming duller, along with the lights, as blood poured down her side.

Pyotr noticed quickly. He rushed to her side. He moved her gently onto her back, holding her hand and supporting her side. He grabbed a blanket from a nearby seat and pressed it against her side, not pulling the arrow out, knowing it would only make the wound worse. He pushed her hand against the blanket, taking sure she was holding it in place.

He looked back towards the fight. Something snapped. Red flooded his vision, blinding him. He closed his eyes, standing up slowly. A pain flew up his back, but he didn’t flinch or stop. The skin on his back broke and stretched. Blood trickled down from four spots on his back. He moved forward slowly, four things stretching from his back, but it felt normal, instinctual. Slits opened across his forehead, small trickles of blood dripping from each. They widened, revealing eyes hidden underneath. Six inhuman eyes. Black sclera and white irises.

He was terrifying.

The two superheroes froze, the soldiers stepped back, absolutely horrified. Pyotr ran.

Ari didn’t see much, the blood lose creating a haze, blurring her vision. She watched as a spider flew around the room, snapping necks and jumping from person to person. She blinked heavily, and the spider was her brother. She blinked again and all the soldiers were on the floor, Iron Man without his mask at her side, Pyotr breathing heavily in front of her.

His gaze turned to Hawkeye.

“Was that your arrow?”

“Woah, kid no! I wouldn’t do that!”

“Is it yours?!”

“No!”

Mr Stark cut in.

“Peter. I make his arrows, this is not one of them. I promise you.”

Pyotr tried to slow his breathing. He knelt down next to her.

“She needs med bay.”

“We’ll take her.”

“Good…good…”

“Peter, she’ll be okay. We’ll make sure of it.”

“I know, I know, я знаю, я знаю, я знаю…”

“Peter, English.”

“Английский? Английский…Не английский. Только русский.”

“Peter, stay calm. It’s okay. We’re gonna help her.”

“Помочь ей.”

Stark picked her up and flew her down the empty lift to a few floors down, the med bay. Pyotr was left alone with Hawkeye, Barton. The two of them looked back at Pyotr’s new limbs. He tried to fold his legs back into himself, but they only bent and pressed into himself. He closed his spider eyes and they sealed over, leaving no evidence of them except for the dark scars, and the remaining blood trickling from them.

“The other floors are clear.” Barton started. “There are some that aren’t destroyed. I suggest you go have a bath, or a shower. Clean yourself off of all that blood. Relax.”

Pyotr nodded in return, not sure he could speak any more without it being only in Russian. He climbed the stairs to the next floor, which was clear. He found an empty guest room and used the en suite. He cleaned himself off, rubbing at his skin until the water came away clear instead of red. He found some spare clothes left behind by someone, and got dressed. He lay down on the bed, not reacting to anything around him.

Stark came in at one point and placed a blanket over him. Pyotr didn’t react to his presence, didn’t even notice him until Stark was sitting next to him, running a hand through his hair.

“I lost control.”

“Because Ariadna was hurt. Any of us would have done the same.” Stark replied. “Have you ever done the spider form thing before?”

“Never. It was terrifying. I was terrifying. Ari must be scared of me.”

“She’s not. She told me she was only worried about you. She’s been worried about you and for you her entire life. She loves you, she’s not scared of you. She never could be.”

“Are you scared of me?”

“Again, I’m only scared for you. You may have though you lost control, but your attack was contained. You didn’t hurt me or Barton or Ari. We’re not scared of you.”

“I think I want to be alone.”

“Alright. I’ll come get you later for food, if you’re not down before then.”

“Thank you.”

Stark walked out, after tucking Pyotr further under the blanket. Not that it mattered. Nearly immediately after Stark had left, Pyotr was out of the bed, opening the large window, and scaling down it. Down the side of the building until he reached the bottom, then he ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Английский? Английский…Не английский. Только русский.” -- "English? English ... not English. Only Russian."  
> “Помочь ей.” -- "Help her."


	13. Dead Girl Walking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I wanted someone strong who could protect me  
> I let his anger fester and infect me  
> His solution is a lie  
> No one here deserves to die  
> Except for me and the monster I created"
> 
> \-- Dead Girl Walking (Reprise), Veronica Sawyer, Heathers

He was a monster. He was clean now, all the blood washed off. The smell still lingered faintly, as if he hadn’t washed it from his nose. The smell served to remind him of what he had done, what he had become.

He was a spider. More so now than before. He had the legs and the eyes, instead of just the webs and the senses. He was a monster.

The blood was a mixture. It was his own, caused by the breaks in his skin from his new appendages, mixed with the blood of his enemies, the HYDRA soldiers that had to appear at the worst possible moment. He had just gotten his sister back, his family back, and now he has to leave her behind. He has to protect her, even if that means being as far away from him as possible.

He knew the dangers of being out alone. There was a reason he had stayed cooped up in the tower for so long, only leaving with an escort. People were a danger to him, and he was a danger to people. Well, Stark tried his best. There was only so much time before something broke and gave way. Pyotr was stupid for believing that it wasn’t going to happen.

New York was quiet. It was unusual. He had always been able to hear something going on, his senses picking up the smallest noise from across the city. Now, however…nothing. He could only hear his breaths and his footsteps as he walked along the street. It was unsettling, but peaceful. The final silence after years of constantly hearing everything around him, it was like a baby taking its first breath.

He walked along the empty street, his head held a little higher than before. His spider legs were tucked against his back, a baggy jumper hiding them. His inhuman eyes were closed and sealed over. Small scars would be on his face in their place. He raised a hand to touch them, a small sting of pain filling the area of the scar. He drew his hand away, sighing.

He was a monster.

A monster that was being followed by a dark van.

A dark van that was advancing quickly.

A dark van that opened and pulled him inside.

A dark van that drove away on an empty street.

***

Tony was worried. To be fair, he was usually worried. Now, however, he had his spider-kid to worry about. He meant spider quite literally now. This kid was a spider. Spider legs and eyes. It was unsettling.

He couldn’t even imagine how the kid feels about it. Maybe he should go ask, check on the kid. Ask him how he’s feeling. The traumatised spider-kid that just developed more powers after his sister got shot in the side.

It didn’t matter that she had survived. That she was going to make a full recovery. Peter was damaged and now it just got worse. He needed help.

Tony went to his room. He knocked on the door.

“Hey, Pete? You awake?” He didn’t hear anything in return. “Well, if you are, I get it if you don’t want to talk. I was just going to ask if you needed anything? If you wanted to talk? I just want to know how you’re doing?” He knocked gently. “Peter?” He tested the door, finding it unlocked. He opened it slowly, calling for the boy again, before seeing the empty bed. And the open window.

The window that was open wide enough for a certain spider-boy to crawl out of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a short chapter. it's just an interlude for the next chapter, which will have a lot more action than this.


End file.
